“You’re wrong,” he growled, unwilling to believe a word of it.
“Denial doesn’t change the truth,” she replied. “Corveth has been here for decades. He didn’t arrive on a ship.”
Cethin glanced at the male, still silent with a faint smile on his lips as he watched this all play out.
“He came looking for sanctuary, and instead he found the prince and the kingdom responsible for so much death and misery,” Kailia snarled.
“How can you possibly believe that after these last months?” Cethin demanded, straining to keep his magic in check. He needed to be strategic about all of this. Two Ash Riders. Two creatures of old still out there. The Elder Clan still hovering. They’d said the creatures awakening was an omen. They hadn’t wanted Kailia on the throne. Despite knowing so much of her plans, he’d thought he could sway her. He could have never prepared for any ofthisthough.
“I’ll admit these last few weeks, I second-guessed myself,” she confessed. “Seeing the people. You including me on matters. How kind and gracious you are with those in your care. I thought maybe it wasn’t a mask. Maybe everyone was wrong. Because how could you be the cruel and cursed prince? The king everyone speaks of across the sea?” Somehow her features darkened even more, twilight casting shadows across her face. “Then you showed me exactly how you do it. How you use and betray without care of who pays the cost.”
Her last words were cold and filled with vitriol.
“Kailia, we can talk about all that. We can?—”
But he was cut off by the roar of a dragon that had all three of them looking to the dark sky, the last rays of sunlight fading completely.
“You said you were handling the others,” Kailia said sharply, her gaze cutting to Corveth.
“I did,” Corveth answered, his words smooth and icy. “This shouldn’t be possible.”
But a black dragon was flying hard and fast for them, a dark spot against the stars. He half expected Kailia to release her arrow, but she didn’t. There wasn’t time to debate anything else as the dragon banked before landing behind Cethin. The ground shook beneath them, everyone stumbling at the impact, but when Cethin looked up, it wasn’t glowing red eyes he found.
They were sapphire blue.
Razik.
He didn’t know how or why the male was here, but this was the first time he’d ever been happy to see him.
His scales were black as night, and they seemed to absorb the moonlight. Two horns protruded from his diamond-shaped head, and a spiked tail curled around Cethin as a growl rumbled from his chest. Those glowing eyes were fixed on Kailia with a resentment Cethin had only ever seen directed at him.
“You’re too late,” she said simply, lifting her bow and taking aim.
Too many things happened at once.
Razik loosed a roar just as astryxcame diving in, as hard and fast as Razik had been flying. The creatures of old were impervious to dragon fire, and they were one of the few creatures that were a threat to the dragons.Razik didn’t have a choice but to go airborne. Not only to keep himself out of harm’s way, but it would also lead the thing away from Cethin and the others.
Cethin let his magic free, his darkness surrounding him in a vortex of protection.
The force of Razik’s wings flapping sent a gust of air swirling around them all.
A gust of wind that should have blown an arrow off course.
But not the one Kailia had released.
Not the one with a gold arrowhead that sank deep into Cethin’s chest.
Chapter 43
Kailia
Corveth had come through on his end, and thank Temural for that.
There was a reason they’d brought Cethin here. Of course, thestryxeshad been for Tybalt since she thought she’d taken care of Razik by dismissing him as her personal guard and leaving him behind, but the male had shown up anyway. Surprising, considering his disdain for the king, but his uncle must have somehow gotten word to him. It was no matter, though. Razik had told her that the creatures of old were the single formidable threat to them in Avonleya, so Corveth had woken thestryxes.
Now she stared at her husband, the phantom’s arrow protruding from the center of his chest. He’d grimaced at the impact, and he reached up, snapping the arrow in half with a grunt of pain. Smart to let Niara remove the rest, although she was hoping even the skilled Healer would be too late to save him this time.
She was already suspecting that she was right about the effects of the phantom’s arrows. The moment the arrow had pierced Cethin’s flesh, his darkness had dissipated. The sameway it did with the gold swords or the swipe of the phantom’s hand. It became nothing. A nuisance brushed away.
